The Great Long March

180 kilometres in 6 days from rural areas to the financial capital is indeed one of the greatest marches by our kisans. Swelled foot, bleeding toes, wrinkled faces and dusty hands marched all their way towards the Maharashtra Vidhan Bhavan. Wrapped in red under the banner of All India Kisan Sabha, all are determined to make their demands get accepted from the ruling RSS-BJP government.
             I was pretty upset after the Left's humiliating defeat in Tripura and was seeing it as one of the worst electoral scenarios for the Left after Independence. But even though, there was a weakening feeling in Tripura, the AIKS strengthened me and showed all of us the strength of Left. It is only through these types of grassroot movements can India's Left get into the hearts of the citizens.
            Agrarian distress has been continuously haunting our country and with years passing by, there has been a steep increase in the case of farmer suicides especially in the states such as Maharashtra and Karnataka. Farmers have been facing the wrath of the lack of supporting and adequate policies from successive governments on the issues such as increasing the MSP, immediate implementation of the recommendations of the Swaminathan Commission, waivering of farm loans and compensation for crop losses due to unfavourable climatic conditions. All these distressing circumstances forced the farmers of Maharashtra to act, regardless of the losses which they would suffer on losing a day's farming. They have set aside all their losses and marched along collectively with their bare feet braving the scorching heat. This March can be termed as one of the historical movements on the part of our farmers.
             As I had said earlier, that for the present situation in our country, India's Left is the only viable alternative and it is only if the Left organizes such mass movements, will they reach the hearts of every common man. These are the so called grassroot level activities which will never be seen from the RSS which has been working in the grassroot level to spread hatred among various communities using the age old method of "Divide and Rule" used by the Europeans. Right through its history, there has never been any instance when the RSS has played a pivotal role in any peasant movements.
            Witnessing the massive support which our farmers have got from the Mumbai residents, one thing is sure - that there is a farmer inside every Indian as most of the "Urbaners" are the harvest of the rural seeds sown years ago.

Apathy of India's Left !!!!

It was yet another setback for India's Left with yesterday's verdict in Tripura. The left which had been ruling Tripura uninterruptedly for the last 25 years was decimated to a mere 16 seats by the saffron party. Being a left supporter, it was heartbreaking for me to digest this verdict. In the morning, when I saw Left leading (though with meagre seats) I was somewhat satisfied thinking that party may retain the power, but when as time went by the seat share started falling rapidly and I was awestruck. I kept on looking at the screen hoping that some miracle might happen and hoped for any final twist in the tale. Some may say that, BJP ate Congress's vote share but it is not as simple as that. Yes, it is a factor that the BJP ate into the Congress's vote share, but if we take into consideration the scale of campaigning which the BJP did, a  handsome part of left's vote share has gone into BJP's kitty also. Simply, going with the first factor, can be seen as an utter ignorance of the true situation.

Yesterday's verdict was a repetition of what was done by the Trinamool in West Bengal in 2011. Yet, there is a lack of introspection inside the left. Being a leftist, I feel deeply sad at the rapid dwindling of supporters in the country. A party which was once regarded as the party for the masses, is now reduced to mere conferences, meeting halls and plenums. Lack of interaction with the common man has been the main factor behind the fall. A gap has been created between the thinkers of the party and the grass root level workers which will ever widen if we will not look into the mistakes. In the era, where the fascist forces are on the rise, instead of joining hands with the like minded secular parties, the party has decided to go alone in the national level. Votes can only be bagged by constant work at the grass root levels for a considerable period of time. Unless and until, this disconnect between the party and the common man is removed, the party will keep on facing such setbacks and will become vulnerable of getting stripped off the national party status.

The present situation is clearly depicted in a malayalam movie "Sandesham" where the party members are introspecting on the loss which they suffered in an election. In the scene, when asked about an opinion regarding the loss, one member stood and spoke the truth of this same disconnect between the party and the mass. Even though, the whole scene was shot in a humorous manner, it was/is the hard truth behind the present status. Left was once known for its mass movements be it, for the labour class or for the downtrodden. It created a viable alternative in the Indian politics for the people. But now it has been reduced to only opinions which its leaders give on various issues. Majority of people in the country do not have any idea about what does the left ideology stand for. They don't know, that it is only the left ideology which is utmost required for the present situation of our country. A time in which major part of the wealth is in the hands of a few billionaires, a time in which many fascist forces are gaining strength, a time in which industrialist absconders are absconding from the country without paying huge sums of loans and a time in which more than half of our country is still kept in the dark, it is during these times that left ideology will become the best alternative. But, time and again, if the same mistakes are committed by the left, the gap or the disconnect will continue to widen. 

Where are we heading?

The main question that comes into my mind these days is that " Where are we heading?". Obviously, it is not myself alone who is having this question in his/her mind. I was very fearful when I saw the 2014 general election results and the rise of a party which has capitalized only by playing communal cards among the masses. that fear became reality within these three years and with two more years in their pocket, I as a common citizen of this country, am very much afraid thing about the condition of my country. Everywhere where we see, their is a constant attempt to redefine everything which is not healthy for our diverse nature. Changing the complete face of our history is the prime objective of the communal forces and thereby creating a divide is their sole motive.
I recall when my father said that he is tensed seeing these communal forces winning some of the assemble elections. If I am not wrong, it was after the UP elections. UP elections turned out to be a game changer for the BJP, after otherwise lacklustre performances in some states. While in some states, the party was successful in forming the government through back door lobbying, UP elections gave the steering in BJP's hands by propelling them with a massive majority and decimating the erstwhile government and its enemies. Subsequently, the state chose a Yogi to lead and rest is all we are seeing today. Sometimes, I feel that people are  crazy or dumb to vote these parties, or are they blind as to what all are happening in their surroundings. Be it the mob lynching incidents or deaths of children due to lack of oxygen in a hospital in Gorakhpur, all these incidents gets dissolved within few days and we cannot find a single trace of those incidents. Where have the investigations for Gorakhpur hospital incident reached? We still have no idea what happened after the news regarding this incident subsided. 
Gujarat assembly elections are the most sought after the BJP came to power in the 2014 general elections. These election will be precursor study for the status BJP as Gujarat being the most BJP friendly state in the recent past will be used as a marker for the 2019 general elections. Will the BJP be voted out of power or will the story remain the same. As we see the overall mood among the people of Gujarat, we can witness an eagerness for anti-incumbency due to hollow developments carried out in the state and wrongly posing Gujarat model as the paramount model of development. Mere rhetoric will not help BJP now and if it helps then I surely will be more afraid about our country's path and to where we all are heading.

Crisis of Open Defecation - How can we take lessons from Bangladesh?

Open Defecation: A problem that has been in our country for years or decades, but we have not moved forward in curbing it.

Where does the problem lie?

-- Is it with the mindset of our people
-- Is it with the successive governments

I think both these factors contribute equally to this problem. It is only if there is a combined effort from both the people and the government can this issue be resolved. The rural areas have been plagued with the cases of diarrhoeal deaths due to lack of hygiene and improper sanitation. Almost five thousand children die due to diarrhoea every day due to unhygienic sanitation (UN-Water, 2008).
We have all come across a popular interview by Union Tourism Minister Alphons Kannanthanam, where he justifies the hike in the petrol prices to build toilets for the poor in India. Is this a correct justification for the hike in petrol prices. Governments have been launching a lot of schemes for improving the sanitation for the poor, especially in the rural India and have been investing crores of rupees into these projects with negligible improvement in curbing open defecation. So, I think that money is not the problem for such bad performance of these schemes and neither a hike in petrol prices will help build toilets for the poor. The main problem in all these schemes is the lack of deliverability and lack of awareness among the poor about the ill effects of open defecation. Even though if in a panchayat, toilets are built to reduce open defecation, people still prefer to defecate in the open rather than using those toilets. They are not aware of the consequences of unhygienic conditions. Illiteracy is another major factor which has aggravated the whole episode. So, the whole trend of linking money and investment into this problem is of no use unless and until we start from the grass root levels.

A recent development which has been in news is the one related to our neighbour - Bangladesh. Bangladesh has been successful in reducing open defecation to 1%. A country with less per capita income than ours has shown the whole world that a developed status or a higher per capita income is not necessary to make changes in the society. An article in the magazine - Economic & Political Weekly shows a comparative study of the problem of open defecation in the districts situated at the West Bengal-Bangladesh border.

http://www.epw.in/…/perspectives/sanitation-west-bengal.html
Bangladesh has used Shame vs. Subsidy as a social marketing strategy to eradicate open defecation.


From EPW magazine:

"The Government of Bangladesh adopted the CLTS approach for its National Sanitation Programme. Using participatory rural appraisal (PRA) methods, community members evaluate their own sanitation status, including the extent of open defecation and the spread of faecal–oral contamination that detrimentally affects everyone. The CLTS approach ignites a sense of disgust and shame once people collectively realise the adverse impact of open defecation. This realisation mobilises them to initiate collective action to eradicate open defecation and improve the sanitation situation (Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh 2013).

The spectacular improvement in many social development indicators in Bangladesh is aided by the strong presence of NGOs and the density of settlements and their accessibility via an extensive network of rural roads (Wahiduddin et al 2013). Expertise in social marketing is a prerequisite for success in breaking the primary barriers of behaviour and perception. When international NGOs, with expertise in social marketing, work in close collaboration with national or local NGOs, their knowledge and skills in social marketing are transferred to the people working at the grass-roots level. The experience of Bangladesh in sanitation corroborates this strongly, as social marketing has played an important role in improving sanitation in Bangladesh.

Social marketing is a systematic approach to public health problems. It goes beyond marketing. It is not motivated by profit alone but is concerned with achieving a social objective. Social marketing is therefore concerned with how the product is used after the sale has been made. The aim is not simply to sell latrines, for example, but to encourage their correct use and maintenance. (DFID 1998)"

Hence it clearly suggests that proper awareness and literacy among the masses is the factor of utmost importance in order to tackle any social issue. It remains the in the hands of the society to adopt a holistic approach.

Where is that straight road?

Is there any straight path ahead or do I  need to take the same old path filled of twists and turns.

Why can't I get that straight path which will allow me to rest for sometime?

Sometimes these paths confuse me as to where should I move. Some paths are so twisting that I again reach at the starting point. These paths fool me and try to play with me. Every time I get toyed by it, leaving me confused once again. It is these uncountable number of twisting, clever and annoying paths that make up a Life. So far I couldn't make that where am I heading. Living a life is just like moving with a thick and heavy flow of landslide, where we do not have any control to stop. Each and everything happening on our lives is being controlled by this landslide, wherein the motion is random in nature and we won't get a single clue as to where we are leading. We meet several fellow beings, having no idea of how long will we be together.

Some obstacles in this landslide separate us, some obstacles help us to meet with an old mate

Some make a brief lag in life

Some become a carrier for us in life

Some use us as a carrier, some are used by us

Some become temporary carriers, some become permanent

Some leave an imprint in our lives, or sometimes we become an imprint in other's life

World and its Religious Madness

Apart from climate deterioration and energy exhaustion, the most gruesome enemy which our world is having right now is "Religion". Religion has been breeding in our world for thousands of years and history has witnessed several highs and lows throughout its journey. It has always kept humans trapped inside its constraints by not allowing us to speak out our mind. Just like an innocent  newly born human baby, which is devoid of any negative thoughts, ego, selfishness and greed, every religion was born like an innocent child. But as age goes on, the child starts absorbing the negatives. But there is a difference between this newly born child and newly born religion. While the former has its originality, the latter is full of artificiality. Artificiality in the sense that, the latter is made to take birth by a group or an individual with a view of some selfish motives. Initially, it is showcased as an innocent child in front of the masses, but a very few understand the hidden agenda. It is showcased as being filled with love, but a very few or none understand that this love is restricted to its own people only. This love gets evaporated when it crosses the so called "religious boundaries". If we closely interpret all the religious scriptures, we will find that every religion has the same philosophies to say.  Everything gets back to where it started, but the only difference is that they all are in a jumbled form. It depends on the degree of rationality of the interpreter, that how he/she interprets these with the correct meaning. Every religion in this world closes its doors for any kind of intermixing or exchange. Even though, there has been some kind of intermixing, but that too landed to form some other kind of religion. We all believe in some king of energy driving our universe. Religion is nothing but naming this energy with some name, and then calling it as the creator all of human races. I want to make a point here that, universe is not a home for only humans, every living creature has been breeding here ever since humans had or much before that also. These living creature have been living and abiding by the laws of nature without the support of any religion. Even though, there is a competition between them to survive, they have been living here in harmony for long. It is we humans who have disturbed the entire balance of nature. Nature has no religion, It only knows how to create, breed and destroy.

             The main motive behind forcefully breeding religion lies inside a few people who have been carrying out this breeding, ever since the founding of a religion, as a tradition. Motives have changed with time, from anarchic interest to monetary and interest for power to rule. This has divided our society into different cubicles, with every corner of each cubicle maintained at a distance from each other. Any attempt to lessen this distance is hampered by these few people. Masses have been blindfolded by these people with very little space given for them to question. History has also seen plenty of reforms in age old religious practices and has to some measure made some positive changes. It has allowed a few to think outside the cubicle and has also gave them the confidence to question. Reforms have borne seeds of rationality inside some people which needs to grow so that the seeds of the fruits that they bear needs to passed on to a fertile mud. Here, the fertile mud is the mind of a child in the process of his/her growth, which is having a higher grasping rate than an infertile mud. This fertile mud needs to be taught to question the irrationality in the societal traditions. An infertile mud needs to be ploughed excessively and added with fertilizers,so that it becomes fertile.

I remember people saying that the mindset of the people of Kerala became broadened when there came a huge revolution with the advent of libraries in panchayats. Libraries became a place for these people to share their views and to read books related to variety of topic, be it the same which a person is supporting or totally opposite to his/her ideology. The main advantage of this is that we will have a wide angle of introspecting ability and will help our own self to grow outside the above mentioned cubicle. The main problem which is faced by the world is the inability to accept contrary views or the other versions. The publication of the book "300 versions of Ramayana" by A.K.Ramanujan was stopped by a few hooligans of ABVP, who called themselves the saviors of Hinduism. Acceptance of Valmiki's version and rejection of other versions shows the degree of fear inside these people. They fear that showcasing  different versions will create a sense of rationality and questioning in the young minds, which they don't want to happen because this will become an obstacle for these opportunists for carrying out their selfish interests using their tool of religion. Same is the case with other religions, be it the ban on "Satanic Verses" or on "Da Vinci Code", such events have proven that the people behind these bans have the same motive throughout.

              If there is an energy which drives this universe, then why is their any need to name, dress and depict this energy in different manner. Everybody is in a hurry to make this energy theirs and in that process, they create a set of rules and regulations to attract and restrict others so as to make them their followers. In due course of time, these regulations becomes teachings and in the end a religious scripture is born out of it. If a particular religion has a particular God, will it be necessary that a particular God will be a savior for followers of that religion. I mean, how can God be religious and biased. If the God has created this universe, then the same God will be unbiased and will not be a face of any particular religion. If the religions claim that Gods of Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism etc. will help everybody who believe in them, irrespective of the caste, creed and race, then why do we have different Gods? Why can't we have a "Single God"? A single God for our universe. Yes, I agree that if we say that everybody has their way of worshipping their different Gods, then the question arises that, why do a person from a religion A is restricted to worship another religion B by his/her own people of the same religion. There answer is very easy. They are fearful that they might lose one follower if he/she worship another God of other religion. So, it is proven that, it is religion which is not allowing that person to move freely and thereby tying the hands. Religion preachers are very much aware of the fact that the mentality of these followers is like a "Sheep in a flock". But we will never think that how did human become a sheep in a flock. It is due to continuous mental pressurization and restriction that the humans are forced to behave like a sheep, otherwise if there were no cubicles, humans might have remained as humans and the number of Gods would have converged to one.

              Why can't we humans believe in one single energy and teach our children and grandchildren a new way of life. A life of freedom, a life of independence to select, a life devoid of cubicles, a life where traditions intermix, a life where inter-religion marriages are never seen as blasphemous but seen as a positive interaction and exchange of values and traditions. Every night I think of such a world coming into being, but never get an answer, as I get doubtful seeing the present state of madness among us.

                                                             Will we get such a world ?????????

The deformed meaning of Nationalism : Present era

What was Nationalism some six-to-seven decades ago is not the same Nationalism what we see today. A word which created a sense of pride among the masses earlier has lost its importance now. Colonial era witnessed a series of breathtaking and brave contributions from our freedom fighters, for whom Nationalism was a part of their DNA. They criticized each other's viewpoints as well as they grew on those criticism to mould the true meaning of Nationalism. It was not required for those brave fighters to show the love for their nation by shouting "Bharat Mata Ki Jai", as they were the people with senses, who understood that true love for nation was not in words, but in action. They believed in actions, as to how to overthrow the British and regain the motherland. They believed in propagating ideas of brotherhood among different communities and to bring them to the common objective of regaining the Swaraj. The true moulded meaning of Nationalism, was flowing through the blood veins of each and every citizen of the country. Children of that period were so much ideologically advanced that they had that inbuilt thirst of freedom. Their ideologies were so much developed by the time they reached their adolescence, that they were never unclear of the concepts of Nationalism. 

         

            But alas! This idea of Nationalism has been tarnished and has lost its true meaning. The idea which our ancestors had developed through critical review, has been disfigured by the pseudo-nationalists. The main reason for the present condition is the narrowing of space for any kind of criticism.  Nationalism which we see today is stuffed with ideas of religious fundamentalism. This epidemic of religious fundamentalism is fast spreading among the youth, the same age group which in the colonial times was the backbone of freedom struggle. The present brand of Nationalism, as we should say, has originated from a particular section of people hailing from an organisation which has nothing to claim for their contribution in freedom struggle. It is because of their blank history in freedom struggle that they are trying to create a hysteria among the masses and creating a new opium for the masses, in the name of (their version of ) Nationalism. The same people supporting those organisations which cleaned the boots of British, are now playing this fake card. Who are they to provide us with the certificates of being national or anti-national, by placing a worthless criteria of chanting "Bharat Mata Ki Jai"? Recent remarks by a yoga guru of beheading those who do not chant "Bharat Mata Ki Jai" and that of a state CM for labeling them as anti-national, reflects the intentions of the whole lot of brainless, yet dangerous, outfit which is ruling our country. Carl Sagan has beautifully explained the difference between "Science" and "Pseudo-Science" in his book "Demon- Haunted World: Science as Candle in the Dark", where it is said that 

Science thrives on errors, cutting them away one by one. False conclusions are drawn all the time, but they are drawn tentatively. Hypotheses are framed so they are capable of being disproved. A succession of alternative hypotheses is confronted by experiment and observation. Science gropes and staggers toward improved understanding. Proprietary feelings are of course offended when a scientific hypothesis is disproved, but such disproofs are recognized as central to the scientific enterprise. Pseudoscience is just the opposite. Hypotheses are often framed precisely so they are invulnerable to any experiment that offers a prospect of disproof, so even in principle they cannot be invalidated. Practitioners are defensive and wary. Skeptical scrutiny is opposed. When the pseudoscientific hypothesis fails to catch fire with scientists, conspiracies to suppress it are deduced.  

In the same way the difference between Nationalism and Pseudo-Nationalism is to be understood. Nationalism is always open to critical review, while Pseudo-Nationalism is habitual with suppressing the critics through force.

Voices of dissent against these outfits are been suppressed, but the positive sign which we are witnessing is the uprising of students for the rightful i.e. right for rationale thinking . For every suppression, there is an uprising and it is rightly said. 

It is once again in the hands of young minds belonging to that age group, who during the pre-independence era ignited the struggle for independence. If earlier it was for freedom from the ruthless colonial rule, now it will be for freedom from the dangerous communal rule.